Mage/Cleric Multi game

[ElfBane]

I'm doing a BGtutu *enigma* game. I was intrigued by Aerie in BG2, because when you play with an NPC that's mage/cleric you get to see how powerfull they become. So I decided to play a cleric/mage multiclass from scratch for this theme game, and see for myself what the growing pains are. Has anyone done a Mage/cleric multi,,,and what did you think of it?

[Lord]

hmmm, good luck with that in BG1. At first, you'll be incredibly weak and will have to use a hit and run tactic (with sling shots) from basically everything. Levels will be slow, and you will probably die a lot. Later on, you can get more powerful, but I don't think you'll be able to get there early on.

[Armen]

are you soloing? - you'll level up pretty quickly if so and there are some fairly high level scrolls available including cloudkill (no stoneskin though )

i'm playing a C/M (Gnome Cleric/Illusionsist actually) in SoA at the moment and she's pretty good - acutally - what about a gnome? it's not like you'll be missing death spell or horrid wilting in BG1

[SixOfSpades]

Hee, hee, hee.

I haven't played a Cleric/Mage since those fondly remembered days of Fenris Melkior, star of my horrific Evil game. My oh my, he had a wicked old time. The rest of my party was Xzar, Montaron, Kagain, Viconia, and Shar-Teel, and we pretty much killed every single thing in the Sword Coast. Fenris's stats were munchkin as hell: 6/18/18/18/18/18 at the start. By the time we were through, we'd done things like going house-to-house in BG City, Quadruple Backstabbing sleeping Commoners with Drizzt's equipment. Oh yesh indeedy, that was good.

[ElfBane]

Originally posted by Armen: are you soloing?

Yikes!! Are you crazy?!? I'm not good or masochistic enough to solo!! Hell, since I'm doing a multiclass with a cleric, this will be the first time in ages I'll be able to wear decent armor. I'll be playing it straight pretty much. I want to get to the final battle with..
Ajantis
Minsc
Branwen
Merlynn(PC)
Imoen
Xan
...that should take care of Sarevok.

[Midget Gems]

Hi guys.
I am currently adventuring in BG1 with a Solo Multi-Class Gnome Cleric/Illusionist, so I thought I'd share my experiances with you. Only a few weeks ago Dace De'Briago suggested that Cleric/Mage would be good for soloing and I had to agree. Having played with one in IWD and BG2 I knew of the potential of C/M but soloing is a different matter! I am nearing the end of my game now and looking back here are a few observations:

Firstly the Stat Role for C/M is quite hard - there are very few minimum values to help push up the numbers, but it would be nice to have high stats in every catagory. In the end I compromised on Strength - which was a mistake when soloing. Up until Ch5 I was having trouble carrying my equipment, which left nothing spare for loot and/or quest items. I had hoped that the Mage spell Strength would help but it doesn't work as described (the duration is very short). I did get some benefit from the Wolf Cloak, which increases strength when active, but all in all it was a struggle to carry things. So with hindsight I would take a couple of points out of Intellegance and increase Strength to nearly the maximum.

Early in the game, I found that staying alive was not a big problem but fighting was rather slow and boring. As a Cleric the weapon restrictions have to be accepted, however the low number of attacks per round was a big handicap when fighting big groups of low level enemies. If the fight lasts a long time then sooner or later you get caught by a critical hit or two. Once I had Animate Dead and Mirror Image life became a lot easier.

A Cleric/Mage is the ultimate spellcaster, so I always had a spell for every occation. I used a lot of Charm and Hold spells to gain a tactical advantage and I am also very fond of Sanctuary - a very flexible spell with many uses. There is much power in the spellcasting but in most cases there is not enough time to make full use of the potential, I always end up with unused spells when it is time to rest.

Another thing that impressed me about my Gnome Cleric/Mage is the saving throws. I don't usually take much notice of Saves, you miss one now and again which is bad news for a solo adventurer - it's one of the hazards I accept. But this guy never misses a Save, with all the bonuses in place he gets a Save less than 1 in most catagories. No worries there then ! And another other good attribute is Turn Undead. Just for fun I exploded all the Zombies on the Farm Map - I never really bothered much with TU in Bg1, but it can make a nice change from fighting low level undead.

So Cleric/Mage is definitly a good choice, even if you don't solo it's still a good choice. Have fun.

[DBear]

Sixofspades, what in the world does a cleric/mage need an 18 con for? I woulda taken 2 of those points and put them into strength, since cleric/mages get no more bonus hp for con after 16.

[SixOfSpades]

I was going for sheer overkill. At the end of the game, his stats were 100)/20/19/19/21/21. Yeah baby. Besides, a natural CON of 20 (or higher) and you get automatic Regeneration, and that's just plain sweet.

[ 10-27-2004, 03:58 PM: Message edited by: SixOfSpades ]

[Andyr]

Cleric-Mage is one of my favourite multiclasses. Though in BG1 it's not that powerful, in SoA and ToB you'll be able to solo easily if you wish.